He also served as the editor of a succession of literary supplements and periodicals, including the famous Crescent Moon Monthly[4] (1928–1933).

These pronouncements and his dislike for the excessive influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other Romanticists in China triggered a polemic war between him and Lu Xun and drew the concerted attacks of leftist writers.

His major works as a translator included James Barrie's Peter Pan, George Eliot's Silas Marner and Mr. Gilfil's Love Story, and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.

His translation works included George Orwell's Animal Farm and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.

[6] He then embarked on another monumental project – that of writing a comprehensive history of English literature in Chinese, which was completed in 1979 and consists of a three-volume history and a companion set of Selected Readings in English Literature in Chinese translation, also in three volumes.